The Decibel

Today, Pride celebrations in big cities include parades and parties which attract millions of participants around the world. But for many smaller cities and towns across Canada, public Pride events are relatively newer, smaller and sometimes hard-won.  Chelle Turingan is the co-director of the documentary Small Town Pride. They join us to talk about the joys and challenges queer folks face in small Canadian towns and how, despite it all, they manage to organize Pride events. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Feb. 14, 2022, marked the first time the government has had to invoke the Emergencies Act. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did so in response to the continuing trucker convoy protests. And in doing so, he also automatically launched a review into that decision.The committee looking into the government’s justification for using the Act is about to take a summer break, but in the last few months it has grilled a number of senior cabinet ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Senior Political Writer Campbell Clark looks at what we’ve learned so far and explains why this has been a frustrating exercise in democratic accountability. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Monkeypox, an endemic disease for a number of Central and West African countries, is having its largest outbreak outside of that region. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are over 2,500 cases of the disease in 37 countries. Canada’s share of that is 168, as of June 17th when numbers were last released by PHAC. Yap Boum from Doctors Without Borders tells us about monkeypox in Central and West Africa. Then Helen Branswell, senior writer at STAT News, whose beat is infectious diseases, updates us on how monkeypox’s spread is different in Europe and North America, and why the World Health Organization might label it a “public health emergency of international concern” at its meeting Thursday. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira went missing in the Amazon on June 5. They are now confirmed dead and multiple people have been arrested. They both spent decades working in the area, reporting on and working with local Indigenous communities – work that many people in the country say has become more and more dangerous.Lucy Jordan, Brazil correspondent for Unearthed, knew Dom Phillips. She says that the area the two men were working in has become very dangerous. And Julio Lubianco, a journalist with LatAm Journalism Review, explains what this case says about the safety of journalists and activists in Brazil. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For many months now, people have been calling on the federal government to do something about skyrocketing prices. Last week, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled the Liberals’ plan to tackle inflation, which is now creeping up to nearly 7 per cent.But is it enough? And what tools does the federal government actually have to help correct prices in grocery stores and at the pump? Bill Curry, the Globe’s Deputy Ottawa Bureau Chief, explains the limits to the levers that the governing Liberals can pull on for this economic quandary. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mykola Kuleba is the former children’s ombudsman of Ukraine and he’s now the head of an organization called Save Ukraine. He’s been co-ordinating evacuation missions all over the country – and right now, those are focused in the eastern region.He’ll tell us what that work looks like, and what kind of toll, being in the middle of a war zone, is taking on the country’s most vulnerable. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cryptocurrencies have taken another dive this week. And this crash follows seven months of declines, even for the big names in the game. Bitcoin, for example, is down more than 60 per cent from its peak in November. And on Monday, a crypto trading platform froze all activity, further rupturing the price of a lot of digital currencies.Globe and Mail columnist Tim Kiladze explains why even with such a volatile sector that has constant ups and downs – this crash matters and what retail investors with money caught up in crypto should do. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

They’re the front line in defending British Columbia from flooding – but no one can agree who’s responsible for them. Dikes, levees, whatever you want to call them, we need them. But there are over 100 in B.C. that are “orphaned” – and when the next flood comes, the people behind them could be in trouble.The Globe’s Justine Hunter toured one of these “orphan dikes” with flood-management engineer Tamsin Lyle. They discussed where these dikes came from, what needs to happen to fix them and what we risk if we do nothing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ontario’s proposed Highway 413 would cut through the habitat of several species at risk in the province. Critics are concerned it would harm local waterways as well, far beyond the actual highway itself, highlighting the ongoing push-and-pull between the federal and provincial governments across Canada, and between species protection and development.Science reporter Ivan Semeniuk is back to walk us through how this struggle is playing out around the proposed highway and what it says about Canada’s efforts to protect its biodiversity. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When it comes to the issue of salary gaps, some experts say one solution is to make salaries more transparent. In 2021, the federal government introduced new legislation that would do just that: the Employment Equity Act requires federally regulated companies to disclose salary data. June 1st was the deadline for employers to submit their first rounds of data.Erica Alini, the Globe’s personal finance reporter, joins us to break down how this legislation might impact salaries – even those not covered by the bill – and offers advice on how you can take this kind of data to your employer when it comes time to negotiate a raise.Correction: This episode had previously and mistakenly referred to the Pay Equity Act, rather than the Employment Equity Act. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.